Date:         Tue, 30 Jul 2024 21:25:59 -0400
Reply-To:     Eric Caron <ericcaron96@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Eric Caron <ericcaron96@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      List member saves the day
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Hi folks,

I host a VW bus campout each year. 

This message came to me today. 
Guess who saved the day?  And guess what he did to the van that got it running?

I thought I share.

Eric 

Hi Eric and Heidi:

Thanks again for a great West River Westies weekend. Hard to believe we’ve had Wiffle since 1994 and only started coming down to Townsend a handful of years ago. Better late than never!

After reading your recent Wrap Up, I thought I’d share a little about our Vanagon adventure.

Wiffle is a faded yellow ’84 Westy (hence the nickname bestowed on it several years ago at West River by the regulars from Northampton for its uncanny resemblance to a Wiffle Ball bat). It’s an understatement to say it’s been a little balky the last several years.

We had to have it towed to a shop after it came out of storage in early spring. It started on the first turn of the key but then had no further interest in starting. It took not one, but two visits to the shop before it finally seemed to be back in good health, fortunately just in time for West River Westies. Unfortunately, it refused to start again on the Wednesday of what we have taken to calling Vanagonpalooza week.

Because it was cranking strong (and because I’m mechanically clueless), I thought maybe I’d just been flooding it, so I gave it another shot on Thursday. After predictably running the battery down, we successfully jumped it and thought we were set for West River.

Alas, it failed to start again on Friday morning.

At lunchtime Friday, I tried for a Hail Mary and, lo and behold, the bus fired up. We decided it was meant to be and so with Wiffle running, we decided to risk it and drive both the VW and our car to Townsend. The thought was, if Wiffle gave up the ghost, we’d just offload everything into the car, have the bus towed to the shop, pitch our tent at Bald Mountain, and enjoy the weekend.

The good news is that Wiffle purred like a kitten on the entire 100-mile drive, and we had a great weekend – despite the West River water level. ;-)

The bad news is that when we packed up to leave on Sunday morning and I hopped nervously behind the wheel, the bus cranked and cranked but was back to showing no interest in starting.

The best news is the West River Westies community saved the day!

We were minutes from calling for a tow when a fellow in the huge RV next to us, hearing the fruitless cranking, wandered over and offered to take a look. It didn’t take him more than five minutes to ferret out the problem – a faulty temperature sensor. Don’t ask me what he did in the engine bay (remember, I’m mechanically inept), but when he sent me back to the driver’s seat and told me to try again, Wiffle fired right up. It purred the entire two-hour drive home.

It turns out the fellow from our neighboring RV with the magic touch was Dennis Haynes of Dennis’ VW Service in Bohemia, NY. He gave us a business card with the slogan, “I can fix what others can’t!”

As they say, “It’s not bragging if it’s true.”